Sunday, November 07, 2010

One decision down

Although we'd planned to go out shopping today, we ended up staying in. Ian had to do some work and we wanted to be sure that the great room was tidied up before tomorrow's sofa delivery. Yay! The great room won't look so empty.

I've also been sketching out some ideas for my sewing room. I won't be furnishing that room right away as we still need to paint and do the floor first. But I do want to get a sense of what layouts will work and what types of storage I'll need.

I've made a decision: almost all of my fabric will be wrapped onto comic book boards (which are acid-free, archival-quality cardboard) and stored upright. There's another, similar product called Mini Bolts which are plastic, slightly larger, and more expensive than comic book boards. They might be better for heavier fabrics but I'm not sure the extra cost is worth it so I'll probably just go with the cheaper comic book boards. I can put two or three together for heavier fabrics, if need be.

The advantage to storing fabric this way is that it is neat, looks nice, takes up almost the least amount of space, and all of the fabrics are visible and easy to access. I have to check, but I think fabric stored this way can fit on bookcases which are 12" deep instead of closet shelves which are 24" deep. Putting doors on bookcases is no problem.

Not all my fabrics can be wrapped this way, of course. I'm not sure the jersey fabrics can be stored this way but these can be rolled or stored flat. It's possible that some of my more upscale fabrics might be better off hanging as well, so I'll need to make a decision about that.

At least I've made a decision about fabric storage, even if the details aren't fully thought-out. :) I need to make more decisions about threads and other notions as well as a home for all of my patterns. I plan on putting storage underneath the sewing and cutting tables as well as some up on the walls. I can hardly wait!

As an aside, I might be able to get a gravity-feed iron for (comparatively) cheap. If this opportunity comes my way, should I take advantage of it? Or should I look for a steam iron? Thoughts?

3 comments:

the mini bolts or cardboard sounds like a great idea for storage. how do you keep fabric from getting dusty?

i don't know too much about irons, sorry. i reven researched the two types for you and i am no less clueless. i'm a "hang in the shower" kind of person, except for sewing. but even for sewing i use a cheap cheap cheap iron. so i'm no help!

I was thinking about the dust problem, and I figure that if I put the fabric in bookshelves with doors on them, that'll protect the fabric from both light and dust. I might need to put a light-blocking strip behind the doors to prevent the light and dust from getting in.

The important thing about the cardboard is that it be acid-free for archiving. Those comic book people already have a whole system worked out to keep comics and I figure I can use their tools.

I hope to do something similar with threads so that they don't get dusty, either.

I'll probably stick with my iron for now while continuing to research the different irons. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the ironing board, either. I'm thinking I might want a more permanent ironing table. I'm starting to play around with layouts for the room so we'll see what fits in.

Sunbeam has a fabulous new iron out. It resembles a regular iron, but if you just want steam, you detach the top part and, voila, you have a steamer! As soon as my budget allows, I'll be purchasing one for me.Love, Mom